Women of the Bar in 1979 Honored By Cathy M. Badal, Esquire
O
n September 18th the Bar Association hosted another get-together in the Legends of the Bar Series, this one ably moderated by Sharon Scullin and devoted to women in the Bar. As among the few women of the Bar in 1979, Pat Frankel, Barbara Binder Casey, and Lynn Erickson joined Sharon in the program. Sharon began with a brief history of women attorneys in Berks County, noting that the first woman admitted to the Bar was Anna Dickinson in 1922. Anna served as the law librarian, and also shared an active practice with her father; Sharon noted that until the early 1980s, women attorneys in Berks County practiced primarily in firms with their fathers or husbands, or in government settings. In the 1940s and 50s, Jane Ludwig Worley, Emma Forry Mullen and Pat Frankel joined the Bar, followed by Judge Elizabeth Ehrlich in 1960, and thirteen additional women between 1960 and 1970. Jill Koestel noted that as late as 1987, women comprised only 10 percent of the local Bar. Pat, Barb, Lynn and Sharon all shared reminiscences; Pat began by charming the audience with her gentle, self-effacing humor. Pat explained that after graduating from Bryn Mawr, she was going to head off to law school at Yale, but her fiancĂŠ, Sam, urged her to move to Berks County with him, claiming that he would not wait three years for her. What a ploy!! Those of us who knew Sam know that he would have waited until the end of time! But Pat
WOMEN OF 1979 (L-R): Sharon Scullin, Lynn Erickson, Barbara Casey Binder and Patricia Frankel
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